I'm City A.M.'s deputy night editor and books editor of the City Pages section. Previously I reported on industrials, covering mining energy, utilities and military, and prior to that I reported on vice "sin"-dustries (think alcohol, tobacco and gambling) and the leisure sector.

The unstoppable cultural phenomenon that is craft beer has just ratcheted up even more mainstream support.

Supermarket giant Asda has agreed a listings deal with 13 breweries to put 25 new craft beers on its shelves in Scotland, in a deal worth more than £850,000.

An industry source told City A.M. that if sales in Scotland are robust and the demand is strong, the distribution deal could be rolled out across the rest of the UK.

As a result of the deal, Asda will become the largest single retailer of craft beers and ales in Scotland, where there are more than 100 craft breweries, stocking a total of 75 Scottish beers, ales and ciders at its 61 stores, the company said in a statement.

Brian O’Shea, Asda’s regional buying manager for Scotland, said: "The craft beer culture continues to grow, and it’s clear customers are trading up to more premium beers, particularly ones which come from local brands.

"The new lines we have launched are all premium quality and will give customers a new more local choice, with a variety of flavours to suit every palate and occasion."

"Scottish provenance and taste is important, but what makes our lager and ales stand out from the rest is that we put a modern twist on traditional brewing by using scientific knowledge of microbiology to create modern hop strains, alongside state-of-the-art equipment," Heather McDonald, head brewster and owner of WooHa Brewing Company, said.

To protect against the move to merge and acquire popular craft beer producers, Scottish craft heavyweight BrewDog last week voted to change its constitution to specifically protect itself against a buyout by a "monolithic purveyor of industrial beer".